Study Tips for Nursing School

It probably came as a shock to you when you got your first bad grade in nursing school. Like me, you probably hadn't ever had anything less than a B. Now what?

Tip #1

Now that you are a university student, don't skip class. It is so tempting, especially when you have a few giant lectures that where your absence either would not be noticed or where your attendance has no negative impact on your grade. Classroom time is where professors often review pieces of information they want to stress, which is important - it will be on the test!

Tip #2

Don't skip optional informal study groups or review courses your professor or TA adds onto your syllabus. This is one of the best ways to get more face to face time with your professor and find out what to focus on in your study sessions. I once took a course where the professor would go through individual questions during the optional review session. Little did I know the questions she gave us were almost exactly the same questions used on the test. These optional sessions will also be an opportunity for you to ask questions about certain parts of the curriculum that isn't clear. Finally, showing up to the optional sessions of a class will show your professor that you are a dedicated student. This is a good thing to have when you are taking a particularly difficult class where you want to ask for an extra credit assignment or where you need to make up a quiz if something unexpected occurs.

Tip #3

Read the material and answer the questions in the back of the chapters. In fact, if you only do part of this it would be to read the questions in the back of each chapter. When I was running short on time, I would often "read" through the huge amount of material by reviewing the charts and graphs throughout the assigned chapters and then answering the questions at the end. When you have to cover a lot of material it can be very difficult to stay focused on opening a textbook full of dry material. It feels like reading an encyclopedia and most people don't learn that way. By going through questions, you will be forced to go back and reference the text in a way that is more interactive.

Tip #4

Rewrite the textbook. Just kidding...well sort of. Let me explain. When I learned to study I made a lot of flashcards. I used the big size ones and would often write detailed information on one side. I would include drawings, lists, and mnemonics. I started to find out that the reason it worked was that I had to pay attention when I was rewriting material in my own words. It is the repetition that leads to memorization of large amounts of material. I remember once I was trying to memorize the Krebs cycle and thought I had it down, but when I had to draw the cycle without anything to reference I was stumped. So, I started drawing the citric acid cycle over and over again. On test day, I was happily surprised to see there was an extra credit section on the test included a Krebs cycle fill in the blank! I got a whole letter grade higher on the test.

Tip#5

Find the tech-savvy classmate, unless it's you. There is always one student in every class with lectures and other study material in a digital format that they will happily share with friends. It is a wonderful thing when you can find lectures recorded that you can listen to when you are otherwise busy driving, cooking or doing laundry. However, don't expect that another student will just give you study material that they took the time to format unless you are a friend in return. Extend an invitation to a group study session or even offer to pick up a coffee on the way to class in exchange for links and file shares from your techie.

Tip #6

Use your classmates to your advantage. Just like nursing, a collaborative environment is important to success and it is imperative to work well with others. Join the study groups, even if they are not as helpful as solo study time. Many students find the group study session useful and others do not. However, even if you don't learn anything in a study group, it is a wonderful time to get to know your peers and help your fellow classmates. This will come in handy for times when you need help getting notes from a class you missed or any number of things.

Finally

Find out what works for you. Everyone learns slightly differently, so try out different techniques to find out. Also, please do not be discouraged if you are not the top student right away. As an experienced nurse, I have found that it isn't always the fastest learner that makes the best nurse. Good luck!